


Say It With Flowers

by priestessamy



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Because I can, F/F, I gave them all real names because it fit better, Language of Flowers, also shakespeare references, i tried to make it obvious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22990861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/priestessamy/pseuds/priestessamy
Summary: Beatrice and her roommate Ophelia have a kind of weird relationship and it's hard to really describe it well. It might be easier to speak through gifts.
Relationships: 2B/6O (NieR: Automata)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 122





	Say It With Flowers

Beatrice came back to her dorm room to find her roommate Ophelia crying. They were... friends? Kind of? And generally speaking, when you were friends with someone, you had to help them out when things were bad. But feelings weren't exactly her strong suit. Generally speaking, she liked problems that she could logic her way out of, or deal with directly.

So she went to where her friend was sitting on her bed and sat down next to her, lightly clearing her throat. "Please just tell me whose ass I need to kick and I'll deal with it."

She laughed brightly and stared at a blank spot on the nearby wall. Idly, Ophelia tugged on one of her braids and gave a sad little sigh. "You're sweet, B. But this isn't a problem you can beat up. Honestly, it's... it's nothing really."

Ugh, how the hell could someone be so upset and yet try so hard to deflect. "Don't do that. Just tell me what it is, already."

"Um, so there's this girl I thought was really pretty and really nice. And... I kinda asked her out on a date. But she turned me down and... I-I don't know! I'm worried that it's always going to be like this. What if I never find anybody??"

That was... surprising. Beatrice didn't really take her for _that type_. But she supposed that you could never really be sure who someone was into or what sort of person they would love. "Honestly, Ophelia, you're a nice, pretty girl. You'll find someone in no time, and this will all feel like a bad dream." Beatrice was fairly certain she was just parroting something she'd heard in a movie, but perhaps tropes and cliches were what people needed at times like these.

Ophelia laughed once again, followed by a light sniffle. "You're ridiculous. But... thank you." Her cheeks seemed to be a little bit redder than before, though Beatrice couldn't be sure why. The important thing was that her friend no longer seemed to be actively crying. So mission accomplished.

However, she quickly realized that this distraction had kept her from doing what she'd come here for in the first place. She shot up to her feet, growling softly. "Shit, I need to get to practice. Are you..." Her brain nearly fried itself trying to find the right things to say here. "Will you be okay?"

The blush on Ophelia's cheeks actually started to grow even deeper. "Y-Yeah, don't worry about me, go on."

Beatrice was feeling massively out of her element here, and she was grateful for the chance to run away. Grabbing up her duffel, she rushed out of the dorm and hurried for the gym.

* * *

Today was distance training, which was good news. It was practically like a free day for Beatrice. She didn't have to push herself to move fast, she only had to keep moving. That meant she could go on autopilot and let her mind wander, or like now, spend her time chatting with Adriana. She quite liked her teammate. Sure, she was a little overly competitive and aggressive, but she had a disposition that meshed well with Beatrice's. There was also Sebastian, who was... well, he was an oddity. It didn't escape Beatrice that two of her friends were people she normally wouldn't have spent much time with. She couldn't even be certain how they ended up like this.

"Hey, what's up, B? You seem kinda distracted today." Sebastian was often observant. To an almost frustrating degree.

Adriana looked at her more intently as they jogged, eyes narrowing slightly. "He makes a good point. Explain."

She gave a long, drawn out sigh. For a moment, Beatrice contemplated just ignoring them and continuing her run. But there was no denying that she had some thoughts swimming around in her head that she couldn't quite shake. "Just... Ophelia was having a minor crisis. I did my best to provide her with some comfort, but I'm not exactly certain if I was successful."

"Oh?" How in the world did he manage to say one short word like that and layer it with so much meaning??

"The story isn't all that interesting. She asked out some girl and got shot down. But she's a big romantic, so I guess it was a painful experience. I originally threatened to kick someone's ass if necessary, but you can't exactly beat up someone just for not wanting to date your roommate." She jogged on a few more beats in silence before muttering more under her breath, "didn't even know she was interested in women."

Adriana smirked. "Oh."

 _Not you too!_ She glanced back and forth between the two, huffing indignantly. "Will someone please tell me what the subtext is that I'm clearly missing here??"

Leaning over, Adriana slugged her lightly in the shoulder. "You talk about your roommate all the time. You saw her freaking out and immediately threatened to defend her honor. And now you sound so utterly blown away because, what, she's gay?"

"I do _not_ talk about her all the time. Now will one of you actually just say whatever you're thinking!"

Sebastian gave a more exhausted sigh. "A, you probably could have phrased that better. It's just that, y'know, those first few weeks of the semester? Initially, you couldn't understand why someone so weird was your roommate. Then it was bewilderment about how nice she was, and confusion about why you'd suddenly become friends out of nowhere. She was the subject of like... a lot of conversations for a while there." He finally looked in her direction, and seemed almost afraid to say what he was thinking. "Maybe you're more fond of her than you realized..."

"...whatever..." she muttered before picking up her pace and running away from them. Not running away. Just speeding up. That was all.

* * *

Beatrice wasn't interested in hanging out with her friends, and she wasn't entirely certain if she wanted to go back to her room just yet. Too many... things. Too much stuff. So instead she went for a walk. Her college was tiny, and yet still somehow managed to be bigger than the town it sat next to. But if you were itching to waste some time, you could still go wander down Main Street for a while. Initially her only goal was just to pop into a bookstore for a while. That was when she noticed the humble little flower store across the street.

PopDev's flashy sign didn't exactly scream the idea that it was a flower shop, but you could see the plethora of colors even from the other store. And getting within twenty feet of the place you were hit with the wave of wonderful smells.

Inside, she was greeted by a pair of red haired twins who immediately greeted her warmly.

"Oh, a customer?"

"Or perhaps you're merely poking your head in?"

"I feel like we get those a lot. People poking their heads in. But they don't want to actually buy anything."

For a moment, Beatrice didn't really know how to handle this. They operated in tandem almost like one person. But finally she remembered that maybe there actually was a purpose for coming in here besides 'poking'. She cleared her throat softly and glanced around a bit. "Uh, maybe? I was thinking that... Well, I have this friend who really likes flowers..." She did her best to try and explain the situation to them without giving too much information.

And just like that, the two girls were rushing about from here to there, looking for something appropriate to the situation. Barely thirty seconds later, she had two paper-wrapped flowers and a bit of... something else. "Uhh... This seems kind of meager. Shouldn't it be a bouquet of one flower or something?"

One of them, Devola or Popola or whoever, just laughed. "You said she likes flowers. So she probably knows at least a little something about their meaning."

Her head tilted slightly in confusion. "And what do these mean?"

The other sister smiled mysteriously. "She will understand. That's all that matters."

"...right." In something of a daze, Beatrice paid for her flowers and headed back to campus.

* * *

It wasn't really something you could hide, walking into your dorm room with flowers. So Beatrice didn't even bother trying to keep it a secret. When she walked in, Ophelia was watching a movie, stretched out on their futon. When the door opened, she sat up, getting rather excited when she noticed what Beatrice was holding. "Ooh! Who was so bold as to give you flowers, B? Or perhaps you got those for someone else?" As she got closer and was able to see them better, her expression changed somewhat. "Wait..."

Feeling infinitely foolish, Beatrice's hand shot out, offering the flowers to her roommate with zero pomp or circumstance. There was a beat or two, and then Ophelia took them from her. "Uh, I went into town. There was a flower shop. They said... I don't know, apparently these would be good?"

Ophelia paused the movie that was playing, some sappy romcom that she was likely watching to make herself feel better. Then she traced her finger against the petals of the two red flowers. "Red carnation. 'Alas, my poor heart'. Red poppy. Consolation. And... this is willow?" she said, examining the branch nestled between them. "Sadness."

Beatrice cleared her throat softly and shifted in her spot. "Wow, those two really do know their stuff. That all sounds pretty accurate. I just... You're a very bright person. It seems somehow wrong to see you crying. So. I hope this is... good?"

Without warning, she was being smothered in a tight hug that went on just slightly too long. Or, well, it went on longer than most of the hugs Beatrice had ever had in her life. But not entirely unpleasant. At which point her conversation with Adriana and Sebastian flitted back through her mind, and she felt suddenly incredibly self-aware. Was she hugging her for too long? Should she let go of her now? How long did friends even share hugs??

It never occurred to her that maybe she wasn't the one holding it for so long.

* * *

Only a few days later, Ophelia showed up to the dorm looking to up the ante. Beatrice was working on a paper when suddenly her roommate walked in with a big grin and a cluster of flowers in her hand. They were a much more vibrant and varied than the ones she'd bought, and she looked far more pleased to be delivering them. "Ah, thank goodness, you're here!" She presented them with a flourish, allowing Beatrice to get a better look. There were some some clustered looking smaller ones in shades of pink and white, some star-shaped flowers in lovely sky blue, and little circular yellow ones.

"They're uhh... very nice. Thank you, Ophelia. Is there... Can I assume they have a meaning?"

She beamed even brighter, motioning to each one. Ophelia looked so proud of herself. "Hydrangea - gratitude for being understood, but also frigidity. These are... borage. They stand for bluntness and directness. Ooh, and the yellow ones are tansy. They represent-" She cut herself off with a series of bright giggles. "Tansy are all about hostile thoughts and declaring war~ Which I thought was appropriate for the girl who said 'whose ass do I need to kick', y'know?"

 _Chest is tight. What the hell. She got me flowers... Fuck._ I _got_ her _flowers! Were they right? Adriana and Sebastian?_ She couldn't shake the thought now. Ophelia was pretty, and kind, and infuriating, and confusing, and she left Beatrice feeling some really complicated things. Things that just a few weeks ago she never would have wanted to feel. And now she couldn't help it. "...th-thank you. This is... far more than I deserve."

"Nope!" Ophelia responded brightly, reaching out to flick her on the nose. "It's exactly what you deserve. You did something very nice, so I did something nice for you too. Now we're even."

There was something about the idea of merely being 'even' that didn't sit right with her. Her friend had knocked it out of the park, and now Beatrice felt compelled to push even further. Perhaps it was her competitive attitude. She already knew exactly what she had to do.

* * *

"Ahhh, so she returns."

"And after her lady love already came to us."

"The plot thickens."

Beatrice swallowed her frustration. They were aggravating, but they weren't exactly wrong. She could lie to herself and say that she was just trying to buy a better bouquet for Ophelia. But she knew.

"...I need your help. I have no idea what I'm doing." She paused, searching for the only word she knew that mattered here. "Please?"

The twins looked at one another and grinned broadly, then back at her and somehow their smiles grew even bigger. "You will have to give us more than that. If you want to communicate something to Ophelia, then we need to know what you are trying to _say_."

Ugh. Feelings. Words. This was not at all her forte. It was the exact reason she figured flowers were the best way to go. But now she had to say these things to a couple of strangers. But... if she didn't, then they would probably give her a bunch of joke flowers that would end up hurting Ophelia instead. The mental image of the girl crying entered her mind, and Beatrice knew she would do anything to avoid that. "I don't always... understand her. She's so different from me. She's pretty and vibrant, and positive. And she's foolish and emotional. I just want to make her happy."

That hurt, but it seemed to be enough for the flower sellers to go off of. Before she knew it, she was paying for a small bunch of flowers - red, blue, yellow, and a few shoots of green with small white buds on them.

If that part felt hard, walking into her own dorm room seemed somehow impossible. She just stood in front of the door, clutching her flowers with an iron grip. _It's not even that hard. You just reach out and turn the knob. You walk in and then give her the flowers. And then...? Something will probably happen after that. And maybe that's the terrifying part. What if these flowers say something awful and she slaps me and hates me? Worse, what if they work and she likes me?? Do I want that? Obviously I want that. So why am I scared?_

In the end, Beatrice didn't have to open the door. Ophelia beat her to it, looking like she was on the way to do something. Of course, they ran into each other, both of them tumbling to the ground, the flowers falling between them.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry, B! Jeez, I wasn't even watching where I was going. Hah, silly Ophelia, always-" She suddenly stopped one of her normal stream-of-consciousness ramblings, distracted by the flowers. Reaching out, she picked them up with with a sort of eager gentleness. "Coreopsis... cheerfulness... Aster. Love and... daintiness? Myrtle, which is for good luck in... in love and marriage. And a r-red tulip? A declaration of... love..."

Beatrice hoped that if she stayed there on the ground, maybe she could give the impression that she'd hit her head. A concussion was a good excuse for not addressing the floral elephant in the room, right? But Ophelia wasn't going to let her get away with that. She popped up to her feet, dragging her right along and into another tight hug. "Is this serious? O-Or did Devola and Popola just pull a mean trick on you? And me, by extension?"

Ever so careful, Beatrice guided them both back into the room and shut the door behind them. This didn't feel like the kind of thing you talked about out in the hallway. But she kept her roommate in a tight hug, resting her head against her shoulder. B hated affection, but this was nice. "They... might have overdone it a little bit. But uhh... I do think that you're sort of... a very... sweet person. And you confound me to no end. So I hope that's good enough?"

Ophelia's grip on her tightened slightly and she nuzzled into her neck. "It's plenty..." There was a silent pause between them, though it felt strangely comfortable. "I was just about to go get dinner. Do you... want to join me?"

Beatrice pulled back and looked at her with a quirked eyebrow. "Like a date?"

"Yeah. Like a date." She set the small bouquet down on her desk and then offered her hand to Beatrice once again.

Which she took, as foreign and strange as it felt. Because it also felt warm and nice. Which was pretty much par for the course at this point. "Okay. Like a date."


End file.
